The present invention relates to an electrical connector having a pair of solder pads for surface mounting to a printed circuit board, and particularly to solder pads which have a positioning tab for preventing the connector from moving in a vertical direction.
Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,044,988, 4,713,013 and 4,850,892 disclose electrical connectors having posts integrally formed with the connector housing, and extending from the bottom surface of the housing. The designs disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,681,389 and 4,907,987 and other recent patents replaced the integral posts, which had insufficient resiliency with resilient metallic posts which are assembled separately into the housing for retaining the connector on the board. A disadvantage of this connector is that it has insufficient holding strength to secure the connector on a printed circuit board when a vertical upward force is applied to the connector.
Hence, an improved solder pad for surface mounted electrical connectors is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.